In all Brown was involved in five championships with Scotland between 1986 and 1998 and admits we probably took those halcyon days for granted.

Brown said: "I don't feel ancient, if my knee was fit I'd be dangerous. I'm limping a wee bit with that but I'm on the pitch every day. When I was younger I used to think 70 was old but when you get there you don't feel that way. I feel spritely and lively and enthusiastic as ever.

"I don't think of my age at all. I hope it's not my last season. I hope it's successful that we'll want to stay and Motherwell will want us to stay. I'm not wanting appreciation.In a 12 year period from 1986 to 1998 I was at 12 major finals with Scotland. Maybe we began to take that for granted.

"It's now been 12 years since we were at a Finals and I'm not saying it was me but I was fortunate, I was there at the right time and I'd like to think I made some contribution to it."

Brown hopes to be active in the transfer market but admits they'll need to sell, with Mark Reynolds their prized asset, before they can strengthen.

"With the financial constraints we'll have to continue giving young players their chance.’’ he explained "We're having to look at young players rather than bring in players. We've called up five from the Under-19s, so that's encouraging.

‘’I've spoken to Davie Moyes about Ruddy and Jutkiewicz and they're going to start pre-season with Everton.It's unlikely we'll get anyone in before the European deadline on July 9, we'd need to sell a player before we could afford a wage. There's been no inquiries for Reynolds and that's a bit disappointing for him and us. I'm not punting him for sale but if we sold him we could bring in a couple of players.